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Video Card Price/Performance Guide (Jan 09)
Introduction
So, you've lined up your ducks, asked only for Newegg gift certificates, Fallout 3, and set aside a week of sick leave. It's time to buy that new video card. That leaves picking the video card. If you have $500 go ahead and buy an HD 4870 X2 or a pair of GTX 260s. You have my permission. There's not really any way to screw up with that kind of money, er, unless you for whatever reason think that a GTX 280 is the way to go. I mean, get a GTX 260 and spend the rest of your money on liquor, that's a much more efficient way to forget you had money to spare. And for everyone else, there's this guide, because picking the right card can be frustrating when you're on a budget. I took ten mainstream and high-end video cards, averaged their performance results, and divided those by their entry-level prices. (I've also got stats for performance to watt ratios.) If you're looking for the best-possible deal, I hope you find this… enlightening. Test Computer Specifications  Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz Asus Rampage Formula (Sponsored by Asus) 2GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2 800 @ 4-4-4-12 (Sponsored by Crucial) Thermaltake Toughpower 1000 (Sponsored by Thermaltake) Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (Sponsored by Microsoft)The following are the video cards I will be comparing in this guide:
Page 1: Introduction & Test Setup
Page 2: DirectX 10 Titles Page 3: DX9, OpenGL, and Synthetics Page 4: Averages, Performance Per Watt, & Conclusion 
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Add Comment
4 User Comments 1 - Posted by
YellowCard
on January 12, 2009 - 1:24 pm What was the price used to factor in the GTX 280? All the prices are listed on the last page except the 280? I'm just curious because I've seen them on sale recently for around $300.
2 - Posted by
Max Slowik
on January 14, 2009 - 9:51 pm Yes, NVIDIA just recently cut the prices of GTX 280s. They're still the worst price-performance-wise, although they cost quite a bit less now.
3 - Posted by
Robb
on January 18, 2009 - 8:34 am Hi, Really appreciate your thoroughness; I have a question, hope it's O.K. to ask it here: How can I tell which card will fit in my pc? I have an Alienware/Area 51, full tower, Core 2Duo E6700, GeForce 7800GT, 700watt power and 2 GB DDR2 RAM--purchased 10/06. Can you direct me on this? Again, that's a clear assessment of the options and I found it quite helpful.. Robert S. Methuen, MA robbsey@gmail.com 4 - Posted by
Kurtis
on January 18, 2009 - 9:15 am Robert: Do you know what the motherboard is inside of the system? I would assume you're PCI-Express compatible, but could only be sure if I know what motherboard you're running on. The motherboard probably has its name etched into it big enough to be easily visible.
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